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IOM South Africa signed a memorandum of understanding with the Vhembe District Municipality and Vhembe District Department of Health on the 26th of February 2013.

The MOU articulates IOM’s contribution to the district’s efforts to harness the benefits of migration and address specific health concerns including but not limited to HIV, TB and Malaria; ensure optimal and effective utilisation of resources; and ensure that a wide scope of areas is covered with a greater impact in the implementation of HIV, TB and HIV prevention and care programmes.

IOM South Africa facilitated convening the Cross Border Migration Management Stakeholder Forum between Zimbabwe and South Africa on the 20th February 2013 at the border town of Musina.

The bi-monthly forum established in February 2012 and co-chaired by the Zimbabwe Department of Immigration and Control and the South Africa Department of Home Affairs Immigration Service brings together Departments of Social Development and Law Enforcement Agencies to engage in seeking sustainable solutions to irregular migration challenges between the two countries.

The Agency for Refugee Education, Skills Training & Advocacy (ARESTA) and IOM hosted a soccer tournament aimed at building and strengthening communities of diversity and peace in Brown’s Farm in Philippi, Cape Town on the 19th of January 2013.

The soccer tournament brought together teams made up of locals and foreign nationals from the greater community of Philippi who competed for the ultimate prize of being local champions of peace and diversity.

The evacuation of more than 200,000 migrant workers from Libya in 2011 focused world attention on the plight of tens of thousands of migrant workers, mainly from low-income, developing countries, who found themselves swept up by the political upheaval, without money, jobs, documentation or any means of getting home to their families.

IOM will launch a project aimed at addressing heath vulnerabilities of 20,000 migrant mine‐workers, their families and affected communities in southern Africa on 1st December 2012.

The EUR 4.9 million project – Partnership on Health and Mobility in the Mining Sector of Southern Africa – will be funded by the Minister of Foreign Trade and International Cooperation of the Netherlands and will run through December 2015.

IOM South Africa, in partnership with UNHCR and the City of Johannesburg, will today launch a campaign aimed at sensitizing the South African public to the fact that migrants are an integral part of South African society.

Using the slogan “I Am a Migrant Too,” the campaign, which will run through December 18th – International Migrants Day – highlights the fact that practically all South Africans are either migrants or related to migrants.

Although Ayanda’s initial visit to Ireland, in 2006, began as a holiday, she decided to move to Ireland permanently with her daughter Esihle, where they lived for four years. Due to a particular series of events, Ayanda experienced financial difficulties and discrimination that made her feel as if Ireland could never be her home.

IOM handed over a fully equipped Migration Management National Training Centre to the Government of Botswana on Tuesday the 23rd of October 2012. Botswana Minister of Labour and Home Affairs Edwin Jenamiso Batshu and IOM Regional Director for East and Southern Africa Bernardo Mariano attended the formal handover ceremony.

IOM South Africa on Monday 15th October 2012, will hand over new and improved shelters for up to 200 unaccompanied boys and 80 vulnerable female migrants in Musina, the border town of South Africa and Zimbabwe.

The shelters were constructed under the European Commission-funded project “Support to the South African Government to Strengthen Communities of Diversity and Peace” in partnership with UNDP and South African Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA.)

IOM, with funding from the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) and the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), will this month launch a project aimed at building and strengthening communities of diversity and peace in South Africa’s Western Cape Province.

The 9-month project will be implemented through the Agency for Refugee Education, Skills Training and Advocacy (ARESTA), a local NGO based in Cape Town with a proven track record of implementing projects aimed at integrating migrants into host communities.

International Organization for Migration

About Us

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is a dynamic and growing inter-governmental organization, with 151 member states, committed to the principle that humane and orderly migration benefits migrants and society.

Established in 1951 and now active in over 440 field locations worldwide, IOM works with partners, government and civil society to:

Assist in meeting the operational challenges of migration and mobility

Advance understanding of migration issues

Encourage social and economic development through migration; and

Uphold the human dignity and well-being of migrants and mobile populations